21. Slider
21
SLIDER
“I changed my mind. We should leave first thing in the morning,” I said, charging into the kitchen.
Thumper grinned at me. “She got to you, didn’t she?”
“No.”
Rae was shaking her head at the table, pretending to ignore me, but I knew she was always listening.
“If she didn’t get to you, then why are you so flustered?” IRIS asked.
I shook out my hands, trying to calm the fuck down. My heart was racing and my palms were sweating. Fuck, I was losing it. They were right. I was flustered, and it was all because of a damn banana.
“Look, the point is, we’re safer at OPS. We should leave.”
“What information do we have on the attacks?” Thumper asked Rae.
“As of right now, everything points to nothing.”
That didn’t make any sense. “You’re gonna have to explain that one.”
“What I mean is, none of the people I’ve dug up information on are related. I can’t find a link.”
My gaze swung to Thumper and he nodded. “Sounds familiar.”
“Just like Bree,” he agreed.
“But these aren’t hits,” Rae added. “If they were, they wouldn’t have kidnapped Spencer and Audrey. They would have tried to kill them right away.”
“And one of the kidnappers mentioned she was worth more,” I muttered.
“Right, so who would want to kidnap two movie stars?” Rae asked.
Hell, I didn’t know anything about Hollywood. “This is your territory. Is there someone with a grudge?”
She snorted in amusement. “Sure. Let me dig through every irrational person in Hollywood to see if they have something against our clients. I need more to go on. As of now, I can’t tell anything from what I’ve dug up. They’re clean. Neither of them have been in any altercations with anyone else. No traffic accidents or secrets to dig up from their past. I’ve got literally nothing.”
“That’s not right,” IRIS muttered. “Everyone has something in their past.”
“So, let’s ask Craig,” Thumper shrugged. “He knows her.”
“He slept with her,” Rae corrected, making me tense. “That’s not the same thing.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Thumper said, stalking out of the room.
I sighed, rubbing my hand over the back of my neck. I fucking hated the way this was getting to me. I hardly knew the woman. I shouldn’t be pissed off that another man slept with her. Hell, I’d slept with other women. Besides, it wasn’t like I was her boyfriend or anything. We weren’t sleeping together. I wasn’t even sure I liked her. We had a moment. A lust-filled moment where I groped her.
Fuck, I was letting my dick get the best of me.
Craig walked in with Alec, and I nearly threw a punch. As if IRIS knew exactly where my head was at, he slung his arm around my neck and dragged me to the other side of the room.
“Maybe you should have a beer and chill out.”
“We’re working.”
“No, the rest of us are working. You’re thinking with your dick.”
He was right. I took a deep breath and nodded. It was time to think like a protection agent and not like a man who wanted to get laid.
“—there’s nothing more I can tell you. It was literally one hot, sweaty night before I deployed. The only thing she told me was how she wanted me to fuck her.”
IRIS gripped my arm and held me back. “Down, tiger,” he whispered.
“Then we call it to a vote. Do we keep them here or take them to OPS?”
“Reed Security,” Craig snapped.
“OPS,” Rae argued. “That’s not up for debate. They’re our clients.”
“She’s right,” Alec cut in before Craig could argue. “We did what we could, but if we don’t get back soon, Cap is gonna hand us our asses and then our pink slips.”
He didn’t like it, but he relented with a nod.
“Alright, staying or going?” Rae asked. “All for staying?”
Thumper and IRIS held up their hands.
“I thought you wanted to leave?” I asked Thumper.
“That was before we figured it was like Bree. Every time we’ve been on the road, they’ve caught up to us. For whatever reason, they haven’t found us here. For all we know, the minute we leave, they find us and hit us hard. Are you ready for that? Because we’re running low on vehicles to fuck up.”
“He’s got a point,” Rae agreed. “If we stay, we can keep digging. With two of them, it’s harder to protect both of them. At least here we have the safe room.”
I didn’t like it, but I was outnumbered. Besides, my dick wasn’t a good reason to put everyone in danger. “Fine,” I grumbled.
“Then it’s settled. We stay until we can figure this shit out.”
“I’ll call Lock and let him know the good news,” Thumper muttered.
“And I’ll call Jane and tell her not to blow anything up,” IRIS added, leaving the room.
I swiveled my gaze to Craig. “And what about you? What are you two going to do?”
“We’ll head home tomorrow,” Alec said, cutting Craig a glare. “It’s not like there’s room for us to stay here.”
The tension in my gut eased, knowing that at least I wouldn’t have to share the space with the man who fucked Audrey. It didn’t matter if he was happily married. I didn’t want him anywhere near her, no matter how long ago he slept with her.
“Relax,” Rae grinned as they walked away. “The good news is that she’ll eventually have to go back to her life.”
“And how is that good news?”
“Well, you can’t have blue balls forever.”
I rolled my eyes at her comment. “Thanks. That’s helpful.”
“I knew it would be.”
“If I get Audrey, that means you get Spencer the whole time.”
“Yeah, but I can handle him.”
I cast her a sideways glance. “He likes to do yoga every morning,” I grinned. “I know how much you love that.”
“Slider—”
“Maybe I’ll tell him to invite you tomorrow.”
“You wouldn’t,” she seethed.
“Relax. The good news is you won’t have to do yoga forever.”
“I’ll sleep on the couch tonight,” I said to Thumper.
“Nope, I’ve got it.” He tossed a pillow at one end and sat down, already pulling off his jeans to take off his leg.
“Seriously, you should have the privacy of a room.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me. “And which room would that be? The one where Spencer is staying? Or the one where Audrey is?”
My skin heated at the mention of Audrey, but I tamped it down, refusing to be jealous. Thumper was married with a kid. “Either.”
“Right,” he snorted. “So, if I chose Audrey’s room, you’d just let me walk in there and share her bed?”
“Yeah,” I answered, ignoring the way my stomach tightened.
“Take the fucking bed, Slider. I’m not sleeping with a dude, and there’s no way in hell I’m sleeping in the same room as another woman. Bree would castrate me.”
I wasn’t sleeping with a man either, but Audrey…fuck, how the hell was I going to survive another night in her bed?
“Look, you’re just sleeping. You already gave her pills, right?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”
“She’s knocked out. She can’t grope you in your sleep. She can’t climb all over you and suck your dick. So, go in there, build a wall, and get some fucking sleep.”
“And in the morning?”
He shrugged. “Get the hell out of there before she wakes up.”
That seemed reasonable. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Of course you can.”
He was cheering me on. Actually fucking encouraging me like I was a teenager that needed to be built up in order to do a simple fucking thing. It was pathetic. I puffed up my chest and decided to man up. I had this. I could control my fucking libido for one fucking night. It wasn’t like I couldn’t contain my dick.
“What are you waiting for?” he asked.
Right. I had to actually leave. I gave a half-hearted wave goodnight—to which he rolled his fucking eyes at me—and headed down the hall to the bedroom. I stood outside the bedroom door for a good three minutes, trying to talk myself into walking inside. This was nothing I couldn’t handle. I was the master of my domain. I could handle a single night in bed with her. Besides, I hardly knew her. It wasn’t like I slept with women I didn’t know.
I mean, not all the time.
I shoved the door open, holding my breath the whole time, but when I entered, I realized how fucking pathetic I was. Audrey was asleep in bed, and I was terrified for no reason at all. I shook my head and closed the door, then grabbed my shit for the bathroom. I ignored the woman in bed, pretending she wasn’t even there.
After showering and brushing my teeth, I headed back into the room and dropped my towel, pulling on a pair of boxers. I contemplated putting on some pants, but I never slept in anything unless I absolutely had to. Hell, I was only wearing underwear because she was in bed with me. Besides, I was going to put a barrier between us.
Decision made, I grabbed some pillows, including the one I would have used, and built Fort Knox between us, making sure I couldn’t even fucking see her when I laid down. I had less space, but when my head hit the mattress, I was confident that the divide would keep both of us contained on our own sides.
I closed my eyes and settled in for the night, but now that I was sure nothing would happen, I couldn’t shut my mind off. I kept thinking about how she was just on the other side of my pillow fort. Her nice, tight body laying over there…smooth skin that I had my hands on just hours ago. I knew what her breasts felt like in my palm. I felt her nipples pebble from my touch and heard her sharp intake of breath when she was turned on.
I groaned when my dick twitched at the thought. There was no way I was going to be able to fall asleep like this. I needed to take the edge off. And she was asleep…But it was wrong to think of her. She was a client, after all.
I snatched my phone off the nightstand and pulled up a site I used when I didn’t have anyone in my bed. Yeah, some people found porn disgusting, but hell, if you found the right stuff, it could be sexy as hell. I scrolled through the videos until I found one that looked promising.
Before clicking on the video, I peeked over the pillows one more time to make sure Audrey was out, then dragged my boxers down my hips and fisted my cock. Fuck, relief poured through me instantly. I closed my eyes and started stroking myself, building up the pleasure as I took a moment to imagine I was back at home in my own bed. Once I had that in mind, it was easier to get in the mood.
I hit play, watching as a man walked up behind a naked woman and ran his hands over her body, cupping her breasts before sliding one hand up to her throat. His hand squeezed tight and her mouth fell open on a silent scream.
My hand jerked my cock as I watched his other hand move south, slipping into her pussy and fingering her. Fuck, I could almost feel that wet warmth wrapped around my dick right now. God, what I wouldn’t give to have a woman’s cream coating my fingers right now.
My eyes involuntarily slid over to Audrey, but I jerked them away instantly. Fuck, I couldn’t think about her. I shook the thoughts of her from my mind and focused on the video. The man bent her over the couch and lined up behind her, sliding into her in one long thrust. As he gripped her waist, his hips snapped against her over and over, pummeling her as she screamed while clutching the couch.
My hand moved faster as I closed my eyes and imagined it. “Fuck, that’s it,” I groaned. The woman in front of me was screaming my name, calling out to me and begging me to fuck her harder. Then she glanced over her shoulder and—fuck, it was Audrey.
The phone slipped in my hand and I snatched it before it could fall to the ground, but in my haste, I hit a button and the volume turned on. Moans blasted through the room, along with the sound of skin slapping against skin. With my dick in one hand, I tried in desperation to turn the damn thing off, but the video wouldn’t stop.
“Are you watching porn?”
I jerked at the sound of her voice, still holding my dick and the phone. Fuck, this was bad. Her eyes slid from my phone to my hand, and I could see the desire on her face. Fuck, this was bad.
“This is not what it looks like,” I said stupidly.
She slowly reached across me and grabbed the phone, turning off the volume. “I’m guessing you didn’t want that on.”
I swallowed hard, then shook my head.
Her eyes flicked back to my still-hard dick in my hand. “Do you need some help with that?”
God, did I ever. Fuck, that was so wrong. “Uh…no.”
“Because it looks like you haven’t quite finished.”
Hell. I took a deep breath and willed my cock to go down, but the way she continued to stare at me only made me harder. My hand started moving involuntarily as I watched the way her tongue darted out and licked her lips.
“Fuck, don’t do that,” I muttered.
“Do what?” she asked, her head slowly sliding to the side as she watched me stroke myself.
“You’re gonna have to stop watching me,” I panted, unable to stop myself.
“Is that really what you want?”
I shook my head, my eyes dropping to her breasts as her chest heaved. She was fucking turned on. “Are you wet?” I growled.
When she didn’t answer and only stared at my cock, I nearly lost it.
“Take off your pants and touch your pussy. Tell me how wet you are.” Fuck, I could hear the strain in my voice, how desperate I sounded.
It took a few seconds, but she complied, stripping off her pants and spreading her legs for me. Fuck, even in the dark, I could see her pussy glistening for me. She was fucking soaked, desperate for my cock.
I slid my thumb over the tip of my cock and groaned as her fingers slid through her pussy and pushed inside. “Yeah, that’s it,” I panted. “Fuck yourself. Is that what you need?”
“Not even a little,” she moaned. “I need your cock in me.”
I swallowed hard, barely restraining myself. “That’s not gonna happen.”
“You’re already fucking your hand. Why not give in?”
Because she was a client. Because I could still tell myself I hadn’t crossed a line as long as I was over here—not touching her.
“Fuck, I’m close,” I hissed. “Come with me.”
Her fingers slid over her clit, swirling around it in circles. I watched intently as she got herself off, memorized the motion as if I was going to use it someday. If only.
My whole body tightened and I choked on a gasp as I watched her mouth open in a silent moan as she shattered. I wanted to go to her, to lick her pussy as she creamed all over my face. And that was all it took for me to come hard, spilling my cum all over my hand and legs. Even as the last dregs of my orgasm left me, I kept stroking myself, watching as her fingers came to rest on her pussy. She was fucking exhausted, and all I could think about was going for round two, only this time I’d be buried inside her.
That snapped me out of my thoughts enough to realize what I had done. I stood and yanked up my boxers, grabbing my towel to wipe myself down. Fuck, that was bad. How the fuck could I have done that? Instead of discouraging her from wanting more, I’d just fucking jacked off with her. I couldn’t stay in here anymore. I couldn’t be trusted with her. Not even my wall of pillows was enough to keep me from screwing this up.
“What are you doing?” she mumbled.
“I gotta get outta here.”
“Why?”
I choked on a laugh. “Why? Because I just jacked off and begged you to get yourself off while I watched. That’s why.”
“It was sexy.”
“It was fucking wrong.”
She sighed and flopped back. “If you say so. Do you always do everything you’re supposed to?”
“When it affects my job? Yes.”
“It doesn’t have to. It’s just sex.”
That was the problem, though. It was never just sex. Not when I had to put her safety first. I knew better because I had seen it with the other guys. When feelings were involved of any kind, it fucked with your head on the job. And sex always brought up feelings of some kind.
I gathered my shit and headed for the door. I’d sleep on the fucking floor if I had to.
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little?”
I glanced back at her and instantly wanted to kiss those sex-filled eyes. “Nope,” I answered, then walked out the door.